Tag Archives: Improvisation

Mandolin Essentials #2: Key of Bb Major (Open Position)

In the second Mandolin Essentials lesson, we’ll cover the Key of Bb Major, played in the open position. It’s another great key, often used in bluegrass, that can easily be overlooked as a mandolin player, yet is quite easy to play in the open position. Areas of study include:

  • Bb major scale (one octave);
  • Bb major scale (full open position);
  • Bb major pentatonic scale (full open position);
  • The chords found in the key of Bb;
  • Arpeggios (full open position for each chord in the key of Bb);
  • And we’ll finish with a Study in Bb Major, applying and analysing the above information.
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Mandolin Essentials #1: Key of F Major (Open Position)

In the first Mandolin Essentials lesson, we’ll cover the Key of F Major, played in the open position. It’s a great key, that can easily be overlooked, yet is quite easy to play in the open position. Areas of study include:

  • F major scale (one octave);
  • F major scale (full open position);
  • F major pentatonic scale (full open position);
  • The chords found in the key of F;
  • Arpeggios (full open position for each chord in the key of F);
  • And we’ll finish with a Study in F Major, applying and analysing the above information.
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102 Mandolin Essentials

Welcome to the Pickin’ Lessons Mandolin Essentials Series.

In this mandolin series, we’ll cover important information that I believe will make you a better, more well rounded mandolin player. From working on building your knowledge of the fretboard, keys found in the open position, movable patterns, chords, rhythms, improvisation, useful theory and other similar topics, you will certainly grow your mandolin skills and understanding.

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Learn The Neck With Triads: Guitar Lesson (Part Two)

In this course, we’ll cover a way of looking at the fretboard that is beneficial in building your knowledge of melody & harmony. By learning the neck with triads, you’ll look at the fretboard in a completely new way, giving you an awful lot of choice & freedom in your playing. Go to lesson...

Learn The Neck With Triads: Guitar Lesson (Part One)

In this course, we’ll cover a way of looking at the fretboard that is beneficial in building your knowledge of melody & harmony. By learning the neck with triads, you’ll look at the fretboard in a completely new way, giving you an awful lot of choice & freedom in your playing. Go to lesson...

Bluegrass Licks Vol. 2: Guitar Lesson

In this second instalment of Bluegrass Licks, we’ll dive into a more modal set of licks, in the key of G. We’ll focus on licks played over the G, D & F chords, while looking at how to link and transition between the chords. Our example chord progression is the old standard ‘Little Maggie’, but there are many great tunes and songs that feature the F chord in the key of G. Go to lesson...

Bluegrass Licks Vol. 1: Guitar Lesson

In many styles of music, having some knowledge of how to phrase licks and ‘get the sound’ is important, and in this lesson, we’ll do exactly that, by learning some great sounding bluegrass licks! In the key of G, we’ll focus on licks played over the G, C & D chords, while looking at how to link and transition between the chords. Go to lesson...

Shuckin’ The Corn: Guitar Lesson

Shuckin’ The Corn is certainly a favourite fiddle tune of many banjo picker’s, for good reason, it’s great! This guitar arrangement will allow you to pick along with the tune, and impress those banjo picker’s who may lay claim to the tune 😉

In the key of G and played at a fast tempo, this arrangement is suited to the advanced picker, with challenging techniques that all require strong technique to play clearly and fluently. Go to lesson...

Bluesy Melodic Licks: Banjo

 

Bluesy melodic licks! In this lesson, we’ll look at many lick variations for the advanced picker, in the key of G (standard tuning), using the major, mixolydian, blues & chromatic scales & arpeggios with a great bluesy feel to help ease you into the world of melodic improvisation! We’ll analyse the licks, looking at chordal notes (arpeggios) and how the licks are constructed & how they may also be altered or applied to other chords. Go to lesson...

Arpeggio Licks: Guitar

In this guitar lesson we’ll follow up the Guitar Arpeggios 101 mini-course by learning and analysing multiple licks that feature & focus on arpeggios. Make sure you’ve learnt the arpeggio patterns in the previous lesson, as in this lesson we won’t spend much time on the patterns, but rather analyse how to use them. Go to lesson...